Betta Diet Questions.

[rvijay07]

Will Betta eat:
(a) vegetable Pellet (Saw at a local pet shop).
(b) cut fine pieces of vegetables

Before offering Pellets to Betta, should they be soaked in water ?
Can the Betta have constipation ? How can one say this ? How does
normal Betta Poop look like ?

Thanks.

Vijay

 

[bettacove]

Bettas are meat eaters so they wouldn't really like vegetables, but may eat them if they are hungry enough.
What kind of pellets? They usually don't have to be.
Yes. You will not see any poop, and they will start looking very bloated. Well...it looks like poop! lol, should be brownish. I find it differs by what you feed them.

ashley

 

[Megalofyia]

OH yes betas are meat eaters.. I've bearly got bloodworms in the water when the beta is gulping them down.

 

[WackyInsertions]

Bettas are meat eaters, but really they'll eat just about anything. I feed mine flakes every once in a while to add some spice to his bloodworm diet.

But bloodworms are certainly the way to go for a happy betta.

 

[bettacove]

LOL, try feeding live food! my fish come flying out of the tank and hit me in the face trying to get the food!

ashley

 

[newcomer]

Is there live food for Betta's? If so what is it, I feed fine both a little flake and some bloodworm's freeze dried. What should I try to work out some aggression?

 

[1veedo]

Brine Shrimp
Bloodworms
Earthworms - Seriously but make sure no pesticides or anything were used in the area.
Drosophila - Fruit flys are easy to get ahold of.
Whiteworms - Don't feed much, can be fatining.
Daphnia - Ones a month, can act as a laxitive.
Tubifex - Ones a month, high potential of desies and it's not the best thing to eat everyday as a diet(low nutritional value).

I would feed him 4 times a day. In the morning give him betta food. Then the rest of the day try the top four live foods(alternating daily). If you can't feed him that often make sure his first meal is betta food. I guess you can alter the other food daily(one day this, the next that...).

Fruit flys can be obtained with fruit left outside in a container covered with a fine net.

 

[newcomer]

Where can you purchase this kind of live food, I know of only the freeze dried stuff

 

[bettacove]

Most of that stuff you can't get from a petstore.
Mosquito larva and grindal worms are also very good for bettas.
you can look on www.aquabid.com there is a lot of different cultures there.

ashley

 

[1veedo]

Brine Shrimp and Bloodworms can be cultured at home. You buy the eggs from petsmart. Earthworms, back yard, I'm being serious just make sure they were found in a cleen area(no pesticides) then rince them in hot water. Drosophila or Fruit flys can be obtained with some fruit left outside in a container covered with a fine net.

 

[An t-iasg]

Betta food

I agree with all the live food choices, but I think feeding 4 times a day is too much. But I don't feed much live food. I wouldn't feed Betta Bites or flake food 4 times a day. Is live food different?

You don't want to overfeed; you will just increase the ammonia level. Bettas eat by instinct and not really hunger. So they will eat whatever you give them, like little pigs! Their stomach is about the size of their eye -- not very big!

I feed my bettas once a day. I'll feed 6 grains of Betta Bites. That's about all the bigger each piece of the food is -- like a grain of pepper. I'm sure they would eat a lot more than 6, but that's their limit! If I have some live brine shrimp for them, I'll feed them 4 betta bites in the morning, and 3-4 brine shrimp in the evening. Or I will give them some flake food, keeping in mind the "stomach the size of eye" rule.

 

[tkos]

Mosquito larva thrashing about in the tank make excellent prey for the betta. Mine loves to chase them around. I get them from some water in a nearby park where I know they dpn't spray pesticides. I also just experimented with a piece of raw salmon. He loved it.

I only feed my guy once a day since his diet is so protein rich.

 

[1veedo]

Originally posted bu An t-iasg
I agree with all the live food choices, but I think feeding 4 times a day is too much. But I don't feed much live food. I wouldn't feed Betta Bites or flake food 4 times a day. Is live food different?

No not really, feeding your fish less more often is more effective. You shold at least feed him twice a day. Betta food then live food(alternating) or maby you could try feeding both at the same time :?.

 

[tkos]

I feed all of my fish once per day and then they get no food onsunday during tank cleaning day. They are all happy and healthy and I have never had ammonia or nitrite problems. There are live plants and some algae in the tanks so if they are starving then they can feel free to nibble on that. I know the platies do.

 

[An t-iasg]

I also don't feed them one day a week. I read that it's good to "rest" their digestive system like that. I read also that too much food leads to disease.
You're lucky, tkos, that you can go get live larvae that are safe for them to eat. One pet store I go to sometimes has a freezer full of different kinds of food. I also read that frozen live food may spread parasites. Has anyone found that to be true? Okay, dumb question: If you buy frozen bloodworms, do you put them in the tank frozen? Do they thaw out and swim around, or did the freezing process kill them? Freeze dried food (bloodworms) gave me an allergic reaction, and I even used tweezers to pick the worms up. I realize that the bettas probably need more live food than what I'm giving them, but I do give them live brine shrimp once in a while. One betta snaps them right up. The other one let them swim in the tank for about 15 minutes before he finally tried one! How difficult is it to grow the bloodworms or brine shrimp at home?

 

[1veedo]

Brine Shrimp is verry easy to grow at home. The good thing with them is that they will multiply themselve so you don't need extra pertusis *spelling. I've heard bloodworms are relitively easy to grow too, but they stink.

 

[tkos]

For frozen foods you take a little tank water in a container and thaw them out then pour it back in. They are killed by the freezing process. I believe it is frozen tubeflex worms that can spread disease.

 

[1veedo]

Originally posted ny tkos
I believe it is frozen tubeflex worms that can spread disease.

Diseases and parasites(acording to some book). I guess parasite eggs/ larva or something.

 

[An t-iasg]

Live food

Okay, I'll stay away from tubiflex worms! Maybe the frozen bloodworms wouldn't be too gross! What is a pertusis -- for brine shrimp? Would it be worth it to grow my own brine shrimp for just 2 bettas? The bettas couldn't eat all of them!

 

[tkos]

I believe the frozen brine shrimp comes with vitamins added and therefore is probably a better and easier choice than raising your own shrimp. Raising your own is great for fish that are super picking and only go after live food (like puffers). But from what I have read they loose their nutritional value pretty quick.